US 2009/0153377 A1 · TIME TO DIGITAL CONVERTER WITH ERROR PROTECTION

Abstract

Time to digital converters (TDCs) with high resolution are disclosed. The TDC includes a first time to digital converting module, a selection and time amplifying module, a second time to digital converting module and a decoder, and is applied in estimating a time difference between a first signal and a second signal. As the delay time of the delay units of the time to digital converting modules is the unit of the time difference measurement, the first and second time to digital converting modules are responsible for the integral portion and the fractional portion of the estimated time difference, respectively. Moreover, by introducing the normalization process, the linearity of the converting characteristic of the TDC can be improved; by adding an error detection circuit to the TDC, the possible metastable problem can be prevented.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A time to digital converter, comprising:

a first time to digital converting module, for delaying a first signal to generate a plurality of delayed first signals and reading out states of the delayed first signals according to a second signal to generate first digital data;
a selection and time-amplifying module, for selecting a first specific delayed first signal from the plurality of delayed first signals, stretching the first specific delayed first signal along the time axis to generate a first reference signal, and stretching the second signal along the time axis;
a second time to digital converting module, for delaying the stretched second signal to generate a plurality of delayed and stretched second signals, and reading out states of the delayed and stretched second signals according to the first reference signal to generate second digital data;
and
a decoder, for decoding at least the first and second digital data to generate an estimation of a time difference between the first and second signals.

2 more elements

A time to digital converter, comprising:

a first time to digital converting module, for delaying a first signal to generate a plurality of delayed first signals, and reading out states of the delayed first signals according to a second signal to generate first digital data;
a selection and time-amplifying module, for stretching the delayed first signals and the second signal along a time axis to generate a plurality of stretched and delayed first signals and a stretched second signal, and selecting one stretched and delayed first signal from the plurality of stretched and delayed first signals as a first reference signal according to the first digital data;
a second time to digital converting module, for delaying the stretched second signal to generate a plurality of delayed and stretched second signals, and reading out states of the delayed and stretched second signals according to the first reference signal to generate second digital data;
and
a decoder, for decoding at least the first and second digital data to generate an estimation of a time difference between the first and second signals.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Time to digital converter with error protection

Life of this patent

Time to digital converter with error protection

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims18